The Port of Rio de Janeiro is Brazil’s third busiest port in terms of cargo volume, and it is the center for cruise vessels. Located on the west coast of the Guanabara Bay, it serves the Sates of Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo, Minas Gerais, and Espirito Santo. The port is managed by Companhia Docas de Rio de Janeiro.

The Port of Rio de Janeiro covers territory from the Maua Pier in the east to the Wharf of the Cashew in the north. The Port of Rio de Janeiro contains almost seven thousand meters of continuous wharf and an 883-meter pier.

The Maua Wharf contains yards of 35 thousand square meters. The Wharf of the Gamboa is served by 18 warehouses covering 60 thousand square meters with 16 thousand square meters of covered storage. The Wharves of Are Cristovao include six berths with alongside depth from six to eight meters, two 12 thousand square meter warehouses, and 23 thousand square meters of open storage. The Terminal of Manguinhos in the Port of Rio de Janeiro is the station for liquid bulk serving the Refinery of Manguinhos.

The Wharf of the Cashew, a terminal for roll-on/roll-off cargo, has alongside depth of up to 10 meters, three warehouses covering 21 thousand square meters, and 117 thousand square meters of open yards. It also contains a container terminal with five berths with alongside depth of 12.3 meters.

The Port of Rio de Janeiro also contains ten external warehouses covering over 65 thousand square meters and eight covered yards covering more than 11 thousand square meters with a capacity for storing 13 thousand tons of cargo.

Terminals and docks can be accessed by road, rail, and barge. The Port of Rio de Janeiro is delimited by lighthouses on Sugar Loaf Mountain and the fort at Santa Cruz in the entrance to the Bay of Guanabara. The access canal extends for 18.5 kilometers and is 17 meters deep.

The Companhia Docas de Rio de Janeiro administers directly the Wharf of the Gamboa general cargo terminal; the wheat terminal with two warehouses capable of moving 300 tons of grains; General Load Terminal 2 with warehouses covering over 20 thousand square meters; and the Wharves of Are Cristovao with terminals for wheat and liquid bulk.

At the Wharf of Gamboa, leaseholders operate terminals for sugar, papeleiro, iron and steel products. Leaseholders at the Wharf of the Cashew operate terminals for roll-on/roll-off cargoes, containers, and liquid bulk.

USS Ronald Reagan in Rio De Janeiro

USS Ronald Reagan (CVN 76) visits the port of Rio De Janeiro on 9 June 2004.Photo by U.S. Navy

In 2004, the Port of Rio de Janeiro handled over seven million tons of cargo on almost 1700 vessels. In 2004, the Port of Rio de Janeiro handled over two million tons of containerized cargo in almost 171 thousand TEUs. The port handled 852 thousand tons of wheat, more than 1.8 million tons of iron and steel, over a million tons of liquid bulk cargo, almost 830 thousand tons of dry bulk, over five thousand tons of paper goods, and over 78 thousand vehicles. In 2003, over 91 thousand passengers moved through the Port of Rio Janeiro on 83 cruise vessels.